Cayote Rock’n’Roll with Yorkshire grit’n’soul.
Lucky Red Hat is the follow up album to last years Bound For Glory which rocked the collective arses off of the London Celtic Punks in 2017. Vince has I’m sure a bit of Irish blood (apologies if you don’t mate!), many in Yorkshire do, and I’m thinking that influences his style quite a bit. He’s that kind of annoying artist who can play loads of instruments while you’d be happy to know how to bang a tambourine in time! When we reviewed Bound For Glory we described him, pretty accurately as it goes, thus
“Vince has a very strong voice that growls out at you like Tom Waits lashing it up with McGowan backed by The Street Dogs”.
He puts his sound down to his love of good auld Celtic-Punk, especially Flogging Molly as well as Country influenced Punk in Social Distortion and the likes of Billy Bragg. A gritty Yorkshire take on folk and country music but with a modern interpretation. That album was one of my favourites of last year and indeed in ‘The Garbageman’ he has a song that I still play all the bloody time. A utterly fantastic album of countryfied Rock’n’Roll with plenty of Folk-Punk in there too. He has made the album free to download so do yourself a favour and get a copy from here on his Web-Site.
(have a listen to Vince’s debut album here on the Bandcamp player below)
His new album out only yesterday follows on pretty much exactly where Bound For Glory left off and that’s no bad thing I tells ya! Lucky Red Hat begins with ‘Animal Chin’ and Vince’s distinctive smokey growl grabs your attention instantly. It’s more of a full band vibe here with backing from El Vincenzo (hold your breath!) on several differnet guitar’s, harmonica, double bass, accordion, tenor banjo, mandolin, tin whistle, Grant Henderson on drums and Kieran O’Malley on fiddle but still basically Vince on guitar and harmonica. It’s all catchy stuff and its both folk and punk to my ears. ‘Working For The Company’ like most of the tales here is of ordinary working class life. This time of working years and years for the same company without realising where the time went. It’s pretty much the story for all of our folks if they were lucky. If not then our Grandparents. The first track released from the album was the title track ‘Lucky Red Hat’ and Vince chose well. Cut from the same cloth as the aforementioned ‘Garbageman’ imagine a folk song played on electric guitar but with ballsy singing and a nicely aggressive tone to it all.
The second track released form the album was ‘Dockfield Homeward Blues’ and we are in serious finger-in-the-ear folk territory here. Just Vince on acoustic guitar with that trademark voice gently telling us of life in Bradford a once proud Northern town but now in the doldrums.
The influences found here are far to many for me to list them all but trad English folk is accompanied by all sorts including Celtic and Punk but on ‘The Ghost Of Dean Moriarty’ it’s played like a acoustic hardcore punk song. Played as fast as possible but clear too and within a touch of Eastern Europe perhaps among the western imagery. Those Eastern Europe influences much more to the fore in the next track, ‘Deep Into The Night’, as Vince dusts off his accordion before we back to folkieness with ‘Chipping Away The Stone’ where he is accompanied on fiddle giving the gentle song a Celtic feel. On ‘Manningham’ Vince again tells of working class life in the borough of Bradford that at one point was the Jewish and then the German part of town but now is segregated between Asian and white communities. The area houses Valley Parade football stadium, home of Bradford City. In 1985 a fire broke out at the final game of the season against Lincoln City killing fifty-six spectators and injuring nearly 300. This was played out in front of the entire country live on TV and it’s legacy looms darkly upon the city to this day. Riots in 1995 and 2001 further pushed the two communities apart and sadly seems to be still doing so today. ‘Shannon Of Goodbyes’ sails past bordering more Country and Celtic-Punk and is a song worth listening to. I had originally thought it was a song about someone emigrating from Ireland to Bradford but Vince tells me it’s a poem by Mike Lally put to music. He was an Irish immigrant to the USA in the 50’s and the poem tells of him looking back over this decisive move. Vince knew Mike which how this song came into being. A great song nevertheless and again as catchy as hell. We sailing up to port now and if the album has touched and threatened to go full on Celt then ‘Beauty And The Beast’ is the song we were waiting for. Maybe its the tin-whistle into but as Vince is joined on vocals by Marjory Jager, once of the Dutch punk quartet Elusive Disorder, and she is the perfect accompaniment for Vince’s distinctive vocals with her beautiful voice. The albums main theme has been Western and ‘Cayotes And Roadrunners’ continues this with a chorus that took me a couple of listens before I realised the joke(you’ll get it if your over a certain age!) before the album ends with the traditional folk song, and only cover on the album, ‘Hang Me’ and a beautifully gloomy end as Vince gently strums his guitar and regales us of a hard life that ends on the end of a hangman’s noose.
Twelve songs clocking in at an impressive forty-two minutes and again I am very impressed with what Vince has come up. One thing I feel I must add is that it is Vince’s offbeat voice that dominates the album completely and while I love it and feel it fits proceedings absolutely perfectly maybe it aint for everyone but in a scene where Shane MacGowan is revered as a God it shouldn’t matter to anyone and in fact should only add to your enjoyment. After all your not here to hear anything sung perfectly… I hope so anyway. Vince Cayo is an amazingly talented fella and he’s put out another fantastic album that I hope you give some time to.
(you can have a sneaky listen to Lucky Red Hat here on the Bandcamp player but PLEASE use the link below if you choose to buy the album)
Buy Lucky Red Hat
FromVince Download only £3! CD- £8. PLEASE USE THIS LINK
Contact Vince Cayo
Facebook WebSite Bandcamp Soundcloud YouTube
(here’s the song that introduced me to Vince. I defy you not to fall in love with it!!!)
1. FLATFOOT 56 (Chicago)- ‘Odd Boat’ 
1. BLACK ANEMONE (Sweden)- ‘In It For Life’ 
Described by the band as being made by accident we, and they, should be thankful for such unexpected delights. This is an album of thirteen glorious tracks covering themes of loss and longing and hope that show the Bhoys reaching new heights, musically and lyrically. Tracks, such as the fun filled ska beat ‘Disorganised Crime’ leap out of the speakers in a joyous racket that simply defies not being danced to and then there’s ‘Stand Up And Fight’, a collaboration with New Yorks finest Da Ded Rabbits, that punches it’s way through in a hard hitting pounding track that will be a surprise to some fans. Never fear the Bible Code sound is still evident as are other influences including an Oasis tinged ‘You Got Me On The Run’ but the title track, ‘Walk Like King’s’, is pure Bible Codes, a majestic thumping track full of defiance and pride for 2nd and 3rd generation Irish immigrants who weren’t born with silver spoons in their mouths. Guests abound on this release – Elvis Costello, Matt McManamon, Brian Kelly… All adding to an eclectic mix of an album on which every track is worthy of your attention, be it the ethereal ‘America’
or the haunting beauty of ‘Snow Falling On Fire Escapes’ or the MacManus family collaboration ‘Willie Redmonds Volunteers’ all the tracks show a band at the top of their game and this is one that all London Celtic Punkers will want to check out. It has been a tough year for the band but this album is one thing that they can look look back on with fond memories and pride, let’s hope for more, someone once sang ‘accidents can happen, but only once…’ may the Bible Code Sundays fall into more.
More celtic-punk for you now but in the sense that this is a punk and from the Celtic nation of Brittany! The music scene in Brittany is very strong and is reflected in the growth of ‘Celticness’ and the resurgence in the Breton language. The Decline! are a five piece punk rock band from Rennes who formed in 2009. Their first EP, ‘An Old Indian Cemetery’, was released in the middle of 2010, and showed what proper genuine music today should be all about. They followed this up with their debut album ‘Broken Hymns For Beating Hearts’ the following year and was a mix of punk rock and acoustic folk tunes. 2014 saw the release of ’12a Calgary Road’ which saw the and branching out into celtic melodies but ploughing much the same furrow while taking on varying tempos with ease. This new album released in May may not have the asolute urgency of previous releases but more than makes up for it with it’s catchy singalonga punk rock. Kevin’s strong and distinctive voice and rumbling rhythm section certainly gets your blood pumping and while ‘Someday Somehow’ could pass for bleak post-punk maybe even Gothic in places the following track ‘Joyfull Thrill’ would make the early Dropkicks jealous.
Formed in November 2008 in Carabanchel, a suburb of Madrid as a straight forward punk rock band before they added Asturian bagpipe and fiddle and one of the most original bands in celtic-punk was born. This is the bands third album and, as usual, comes with songs written in Castilian, English and Asturian. As one of only a tiny handful of bands in the scene with female vocals they certainly stand out and with a defiantly anti-fascist message to boot. The music is fast and loud and punky but there is an undeniable hardcore traditional folk edge to it as well. Elements of their own countries as well as Celtic are merged together very successfully. As said I don’t understand much of the album but the sleeve notes speak of the endangered languages of the Celts, Celtic mythology and defending the underprivileged. The punk side of this reminds me of the Spanish punk music I use to hear in Hackney squats over the years but the folk influence is strong and comes out in reels and jigs throughout the album.
Well what to say about Two Devils Will Talk? How it managed to escape a decent review is beyond me seeing how popular this awesome and is. Up there with The Mollys and the Murphs the Real McKenzies have been going an amazing 25 years and this, their tenth, is up there with the est I kid you not. I wasn’t overly enamoured with 2015’s Rats In The Burlap but here they have returned with fourteen rousing tracks of pure, unabashed Canadian-Scots celtic-punk mayhem. From the opening anthemic ‘Due West’ to a fantastic re-working of early McK song ‘Scots Wha Ha’e’ its absolutely brilliant. Once again they missed out of playing here so we never got to see them live but we can’t wait till they do darken these shores again. Punk, folk, acoustic, electric with pipes throughout weaving in the Celtic influence for which the band is best known. ‘Seafarers’ is one hell of a stand out tune. You can’t change how the waves roll only how you roll through them. The sense of humour they are famous for is riddled throughout the album and nowhere better than on the laugh out loud ‘Fuck The Real McKenzies’ where the band take the piss out of themselves, and everyone else too! They find room for a cover of Stan Rogers ‘Northwest Passage’ that only adds to this great song. Originally sang as an acapella song the McKenzies do it justice as you would expect. The album ends with my favourite McK song of all and plenty of rebellious, Scottish charm and wit here on an album that shows a band who are still capable of hitting the high notes even after a quarter of a century. A defiant return to form for one of the Premier League bands of celtic-punk.
This debut album from talented multi-instrumentalist Vince Cayo has been bouncing around London Celtic Punks towers for a good six months now without making much of an impact until I decided to revisit a few albums for these round-ups and I can only think I didn’t listen to it properly as it is absolutely fecking brilliant. Not so much celtic-punk but def in the country-punk realm of things and Vince has a very strong voice that growls out at you like Tom Waits lashing it up with McGowan backed by The Street Dogs. Opening track ‘Wasteland Blues’ is a great start to proceedings with fast rock’n’roll country and harmonica shining out and Vince putting McGowan to shame! Vince says his influences range from the cream the celtic-punk but most importantly Flogging Molly, and the title track takes this adulteration to epic proportions, alongside such luminaries as Social Distortion, Billy Bragg, The Gits, Tim Barry, Bob and Dylan and they are all in there but with a bit of good auld Yorkshire grit and determination.
Our final review comes from the land of Oz. A place I am constantly telling you and telling you is where the best Celtic-punk scene is and where the best Celtic-punk bands hail from. Why this is so is anyone’s guess. Perhaps 
Andy the Celtic Punk Author
celticpunkcast
classicalbumreviewer
essexmarv
gtmellon
kevingrooney
The Don
shaneoneill1888
Stephen Francis Bourke
theold69th
londoncelticpunks.wordpress.com 
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